6  A handwriting expert testified Friday that a seven-page letter she received from investigators was written by Jessica Lynn Lopez, one of three defendants accused in the slaying of a 22-year-old Marine wife.

Brenda Lanners, a forensic document examiner who works with the Sheriff’s Department Crime Lab, said she compared the letter to the writings contained in five journals known to have been penned by Lopez, 25.

The handwritten missive has been described as a suicide note. It was recovered from a Ramada Inn in Point Loma, where Lopez was arrested on April 17.

That’s the same day the body of Brittany Killgore of Fallbrook was found in a rural area near Lake Skinner in Southwest Riverside County.

The letter indicates that it was Lopez — not her co-defendants — who fatally strangled Killgore and disposed of the body. She said investigators focused on the wrong person when they arrested Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Perez on an unrelated weapons charge. U-T San Diego obtained a copy of the letter in May.

“I do not regret my choice, only the consequences,” it read.

The testimony came on the fifth day of a preliminary hearing in Vista Superior Court for Lopez, Perez, 46, and Dorothy Maraglino, 37, all of whom are charged with murder.

Ultimately, a judge is expected to decide whether the prosecutor presented enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

Lanners testified that she examined another document with a short paragraph that began, “I have a vision…” and went on to describe a sexual act. She said the note was written by Maraglino.

When questioned by defense attorneys, Lanners said she could not say when either note was written, or whether Lopez’s letter was written under duress or at the direction of someone else.

The witness said she analyzed other writings, which appeared to be journal entries written in code. She created a key that matched symbols in the writings to corresponding letters in the alphabet, and deciphered the words.

“It was a bit like a puzzle,” Lanners said, explaining that she figured out a date first, which led her to decode other letters and words.

One of the pages ended with the coded name of its apparent author: Jessica Lynn.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Sloan Ostbye questioned the methods Lanners said she used to decode the writings, as well as her qualifications. Lanner testified that although she is trained to analyze distorted writing, such as the stylized words found in graffiti, she had never before been asked to “crack a code.”

Sheriff’s Detective Suzanne Fiske testified that she and others went to the Ramada Inn on April 17 looking for Lopez and Maraglino. They found Lopez alone in the room bleeding from cuts to her neck and one of her arms.